It is known that certain farinaceous materials can be prepared into flavored puffed snacks by simply heating such materials in a conventional consumer microwave oven or deep-fat frying. While such puffed, deep-fat fried snacks are popular, they are not without disadvantage. Deep-fat fried snacks typically have high fat levels which can reach as high as 35% by weight. Such high levels render the snacks high in calories and also limits the shelf life.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,251,551 discloses a cheese coated product which has been puffed using microwaves which utilizes an edible fatty triglycerides to aid in expanding the product. The product which is a puffed is derived from a gelatinized starch-containing dough.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,966,990 discloses a microwave puffable dough which comprises an alcohol washed, granular hydroxypropyl starch derivative obtained from hydrolyzed starch. The starch utilized is pretreated with anhydrous disodium phosphate and reacted With propylene oxide.
European Patent No. EP 0113 940Al discloses a cheese and onion flavored crisp which is made by heating to foaming in a microwave oven a smooth paste of dried skim milk, cheese and onion flavored powder and water to produce a product with a foamed texture. The product is then cut to shape and dried to less than 5% moisture.
Farinaceous dough products which result in a puffed product which are visually attractive, and can be prepared with high puff success rates on a commercial scale are desirable. In addition, many consumers desire food products which are free of any chemicals or additives having a high cholesterol level, such as coconut oil, which are used to improve puffing.
Cheese flavored puffed snacks are also well known. Such coated products are typically prepared by first forming a puffed product and, thereafter, as a separate step, combining the previously puffed product with a coating usually with simultaneous tumbling and heating. While such complex and inconvenient methods may be commercially practical to provide cheese-coated puffed snacks, such methods of providing cheese flavored puffed snacks are not practical or are at least inconvenient for a large scale preparation of cheese flavored puffed snacks. Thus, it would be desirable to be able to prepare a cheese flavored puffed snack conveniently by simply heating such as in a conventional consumer microwave oven whenever desired.
Accordingly, it is an object of the invention to provide a flavored puffed shack product which does not have any chemical additive and can be prepared in a conventional microwave oven.
It is further object of the invention to provide a flavorful puffed snack product which has a high rate of success in puffing.
It is still further object of the invention to provide a cheese flavored puffed snack product which is flavorful and inexpensive.
It is another object of the invention to provide a process for preparing a flavorful snack product which has been prepared without utilizing chemical additives.